The Canon 550D - The 7D's little brother!
So it was that Canon announced to a mostly suspecting public that coming soon to store near them would be the latest addition to the Rebel Line, the Canon 550D or Rebel Ti2. This little beauty certainly does look the goods on paper and with it’s free and easy attitude towards video it’s sure to be a hit with all the boys and girls! What’s it’s deal, I hear you ask, well it’s basically a mini 7D. It’s a Digic IV processor, 18MP APS-C Sensor with pretty much the same video modes and frame rates (1080P @ 30, 25 & 24P, 720 @ 50 & 60P, 480 @ 50 & 60P). Am I excited, you betcha!
Let me tell you why. . .
Check out the Press release here for all the information, I’m not going to bother to regurgitate it all for you, but rather add some thoughts to ponder.
If the 500D had of been this camera, I don’t think I would ever have brought a 7D. . .end of story. . .Now I love my 7D, heaps and heaps and heaps, but I only brought it for the manual video controls, useable 1080P mode and $1000 price difference to the 5D MKII. At the time I was shooting mostly video and considering I really only needed those things, the 5DMKII, despite the luscious full frame sensor, seemed overkill for my purposes. So I jumped at the 7D as soon as it popped it’s head up, but now the 550D is on the horizon I’m looking at my neglected 500D on the shelf and wondering if I could maybe finally get my 7D auto focus looked at by Canon using the 550D as a backup. That my friends is a very alluring thought!
Now having said that, I’m sure there are a couple of things that the 550D will have that will really irk me. Going back to having only pre-set white balances will be agony. I shoot almost exclusively with a manual Kelvin white balance, adjusting it for nearly every shot. This is just me, it’s the way I like to do things. Having this ability for the first time on the D90 was a godsend. Losing it when I moved to the 500D killed me. Getting it back when I got a 7D was like slipping into your favourite old shoes. The prospect of going back to that with a 550D as a back up camera is almost a deal breaker for me. Once you get used to it to Manual Kelvin, it’s nigh impossible to go back.
I’m also left wondering if the noise apparent in the 500D image will be any different with the 550D. The 7D eats the 500D alive in this respect and to be honest, I’m not sure why. I see people making reference to the 2 processors, but I’m not sure how this makes a difference. I thought the two processors were there so you could crunch through 18mp stills at 8FPS. I’m not an expert on that though so I should stop pretending to be! 
So am I going to get one? At this stage I’m not sure. . .but to give you an idea my 500D is now sitting on eBay, with I might add, a spectacular marketing video that I shot special for it! All I know is that no matter what happens, it will be missed and remembered dearly. . .the first HDSLR that I ever owned! *sigh*
More soon. . .
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Good luck on selling it, I am tempted to upgrade to the 550D, but I do not think I’ve learned all I can learn from my 500D, and not bad marketing video
not bad at all.
Saving now, I gather that the extra digic is stills only as you say. Can you explain more how the white balance preset works? Is it just 3 types (3200 5600 7000)? And what sort of lenses do you prefer for video on the crop sensor? I didnt realise that the 1.6 factor was so big a zoom. Good luck getting rid of the 500, I was at Teds the other day and the sales rep was resigned to NOT selling me a 500.